In several ways the Aug.
3, 2004 statewide primary set the stage for the general election vote.
Voters overwhelmingly approved Constitutional Amendment 2 defining marriage
("That to be valid and recognized in this state, a marriage shall exist
only between a man and a woman.") by a margin of 70.6% to 29.4%.
In the Democratic gubernatorial primary Auditor Claire McCaskill defeated
incumbent Gov. Bob Holden.

As a battleground state,
Missouri received visits from the principals, advertising, and attention
from independent groups such as ACT, The Media Fund, MoveOn.org and MoveOn
PAC on the Democratic side. Sen. John Kerry considered Rep. Dick
Gephardt (MO-3) for his running mate, to the extent that the New York
Post evenerroneously reported on the front page of its July
6 issue that he had picked Gephardt. Although the Kerry campaign
stopped advertising in July before the convention, and the DNC filled in
the gap. By late September, however, the state appeared to be moving
into the Bush column. The DNC's last ad ran on Sept. 24.

Democrats had built up a
very robust field program. All told the Coordinated Campaign had
a budget of $4 million dollars and more than 80 employees in 26 offices
across the state. Their six-month voter contact and get-out-the-vote
program claimed over 14,000 volunteers throughout the state. Even
after the TV advertising was cut, Democrats kept the field program going,
partly to be prepared in the event the campaign "caught a wave" and partly
with the upcoming second presidential debate at Washington University in
St. Louis on Oct. 8 in mind. One top Missouri Democratic staffer
said afterwards that it would have made more sense to redeploy field staff
to other states at the same time as TV was cut, as happened for example
in Arizona. The staffer said that it is "really hard to persuade
when you don't have TV or the candidate."

There was a spike of activity
around the debate,
but the next week the DNC/Kerry campaign did effectively pull out, redirecting
a significant share of its resources to other more closely fought states.
This caused a week or so of disruption, but a reduced staff, including
many with Missouri origins, carried on, and the McCaskill campaign helped
fund what was left.

Given the number of competitive
statewide races in Missouri, the pullout may well have had downstream consequences.
An operative on the Democratic side stated, "If Kerry hadn't pulled out,
Blunt wouldn't have won [the race for governor]." "It definitely
made a difference," she said.

Note. Following on
the voting controversy in November 2000, the City of St. Louis sought to
implement early voting. (SoS 7/21/04 press
release)

Third Party and IndependentBallot AccessFor statewide office, Missouri
requires an independent candidate to submit signatures of 10,000 registered
voters to the Secretary of State by 5:00 p.m. on July 26.(§115.321.3 RSMo 2002)
The Secretary of State then sends the signatures out to the local election
officials to be verified.

Nader: On July
26, 2004 the campaign submitted 12,893 petition signatures signatures.
On Aug. 18 the Secretary of State reported that based on final reports
from localofficials the campaign had
obtained 9,006 valid signatures, 994 signatures short of the required number.

Peroutka: 11,393 of
the 15,334 signatures submitted for Michael Peroutka were valid.
Donna Ivanovich served as the ballot access coordinator.

More VisitsNADERAug. 26, 2004Ralph Nader spoke as part
of the "For the Common Good" convocation series at Drury University in
Springfield, MO.

BADNARIKOct. 8, 2004With Green Party candidate
David Cobb, Badnarik crossed a police barricade at the CPD-organized presidential
debate at Washington University. The two were arrested, put in a
police van, and driven to a lockup facility, and, after an hour or so,
ticketed and released.

COBBOct. 8, 2004With Green Party candidate
Michael Badnarik, Cobb crossed a police barricade at the CPD-organized
presidential debate at Washington University. The two were arrested,
put in a police van, and driven to a lockup facility, and, after an hour
or so, ticketed and released.